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New High Village

Los Angeles, CA
About
Affordable homes for families and seniors, woven into the fabric of historic Chinatown.
Quick Facts
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Location

Los Angeles, CA

Practice Theme

Housing for All, Building Community + Place

What We Did

Architecture

Size

300k sq. ft. in total, including 14k sq. ft. of community-serving commercial space and a public plaza
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New High Village will transform a surface parking lot in Los Angeles’s historic Chinatown into a mixed-use community offering 300 affordable homes and ground-floor retail. 
Designed to expand housing access for two populations often underserved by the market, the project dedicates 150 apartments to families and 150 to seniors, organized across two buildings shaped to optimize light, views, and neighborhood impact. The residences sit above a village-scale ground plane that reinterprets Chinatown’s fine-grained urban fabric. Interior pedestrian streets, plazas, and small-scale shopfronts replace the typical podium block with a layered, walkable environment that supports local businesses and invites everyday social exchange. A five-story building houses families above an active retail edge, while a taller building on the north side accommodates seniors, positioned to capture expansive views while reducing shadow on adjacent open spaces. Distinctive rooflines, varied building forms, and a rich palette of colors reinforce Chinatown’s visual identity, with traditional architectural elements reimagined in a contemporary context. The site plan is informed by feng shui principles, organizing buildings, plazas, and circulation around long-standing cultural frameworks for harmony, energy, and orientation. Together, these moves shape a community where affordability, cultural resonance, and a vibrant public realm coexist as a single, generous gesture toward the neighborhood.
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